Behavior Change Strategies for Sustainability
ENVR-40006
Behavior Change Strategies for Sustainability
This course focuses on the strategies and tools needed to change individual behavior and promote environmental protection. Students will learn how to assess needs, identify available resources, and design and evaluate a program for a behavior change intervention. Topics include identifying problems stemming from conventional behaviors; identifying market obstacles to behavior change; evaluating conventional practices (behavioral mapping); developing interventions to promote desired behaviors (best practices); designing a pilot program; and defining metrics for evaluating performance. Students will explore common strategies to promote behavior change, including community-based social marketing and other conceptual frameworks. Upon completion of this course, students will have the basic knowledge to design or redesign a behavioral change program, and to assess performance following implementation.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify and prioritize target behaviors related to a specific environmental problem
- Describe and segment a target audience
- Appropriately apply a range of behavior change tools and strategies
- Understand methods for pilot testing strategies
- Identify appropriate metrics for evaluating performance
- Develop a behavior change program implementation plan
Course Information
Course sessions
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This course is entirely web-based and to be completed asynchronously between the published course start and end dates. Synchronous attendance is NOT required.
You will have access to your online course on the published start date OR 1 business day after your enrollment is confirmed if you enroll on or after the published start date.
Textbooks:
All course materials are included unless otherwise stated.
Policies:
- No refunds after: 7/21/2025
Schedule:
Instructor:
Jennifer Tabanico, M.A.
Jennifer Tabanico is the President and owner of Action Research, where she and her team leverage behavioral science research to develop behavior change programs that contribute to safe, healthy, and sustainable communities. Jennifer is recognized internationally as an expert in applying behavioral science and community-based social marketing to foster a wide range of environmental behavior changes, including those impacting waste, water, air quality, biodiversity, and energy.
For over twenty years, she has worked with federal, state, and local government agencies, private companies, and community organizations across the globe. Jennifer is skilled at translating insights from the behavioral sciences so that they are accessible to practitioners who are working to create effective behavior change initiatives. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Environmental Psychology, Social Influence, and Social Marketing Quarterly. She has also contributed chapters to books on hazardous waste management, social marketing, and producer responsibility and is coauthor of the 4th edition of Fostering Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing (published in December 2024).
Since 2016, Jennifer has served as an instructor for the Behavior Change and Sustainability and the Sustainable Business Practices Certificate Programs at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Extended Studies. She is an Editorial Board member for Social Marketing Quarterly and a committee member for the National Academy of Sciences Environmental Health Matters Initiative. Jennifer has an MA in Experimental Psychology from California State University, San Marcos.